June 13, 2006

Such a thrill.

Well, not really, but still an odd little feeling. I was just now making some copies, and as I was idly standing beside the copier, I nosed around in the supply cabinet next to it.

Hmm.

Pens. Tape. Paper. Dymo label maker.

It's been in there forever, but something made me want to mess around with it today. The first clicksqueeze--gosh, do you remember when having a label-maker was the most exciting thing in school? I had a tiny plastic one from Radio Shack--just like this one on eBay--even though it was small, it made regular sized labels, and I labelled everything I owned. Even better was when you got to help the teacher make labels, and they had the BIG chrome one!

There is just something about the act of rotating that wheel and squeezing that lever and seeing those magical white letters pop out the end--it's slow, and the lables are unattractive, but for some reason the whole process is more fun than it should be, and it's something that I think few children today get to experience. Like dialing a phone, or only being able to watch three channels on television.

I did a bit of looking around--figuring this handy gadget had been around since Edison, but I was surprised to find out the company only got started in 1958, and from what I can tell, they still make a version similar to the one that they first started out with.

Now then, I'm going to go label my lunchbox. And my HR Puffinstuff binder.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 13, 2006 11:48 AM
Comments

And how cool was it to dig the newly cut plastic label WAAAAAYYYY under your fingernail while trying to remove the white backing on the tape?

Ahh, the good old days.

Posted by: Skinnydan at June 13, 2006 12:18 PM

Or, more likely, NOT being able to get the backing off...

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 13, 2006 12:35 PM

We had a label maker way back when. There definitely was a certain amount of magic to it, although I could never get through a whole label without a typo.

Posted by: Jordana at June 13, 2006 01:20 PM

Typos--just another excuse to make more labels!

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 13, 2006 03:46 PM